Purry Good [socs]

I used to worry about how yelly my kitty was. Just my luck… someone who can’t bear repetitive sounds to end up with a cat who howls like a wolf, right? Migraine alert! 🐺

I made up a joke for him. Gatsby, I would say, why might people think you’re from Idaho? He’d say maow (why?). Because you are a noisy Boise! I would laugh and laugh. He mostly did not. 🐱

But a funny thing has happened. G and I moved to a new apartment last week and the windows face a pool and spa, not a parking lot full of stray cats. They also have shutters that can be completely closed at night, unlike my old place. The upshot is that Gatsby has been sleeping all night without yowling at the windows. This also means that I get to sleep at night! ❤️

Oh, he still meows and expresses himself, not to worry! He’s the same energetic ball of furry adorableness he ever was. And he’ll bite me as I’m getting ready for work… Mommy, don’t leave! 🥰 Moving has not dimmed his light. I actually find him more lovable now that he’s quit shrieking (hopefully for good)… amazing how that works.

~*~

Image credit to Shelley Krupa

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Wanna Know You Better

Fandango tagged me to answer these and who can resist a tag from Fandango? And on Friday the 13th to boot? 😱

10 “briefly explain” questions:

1. What really makes you angry?

-Tailgating, rude and dangerous drivers in general, spammers/scammers, child and pet abusers, racism/antisemitism, incorrect apostrophes, idiots who disagree with me about anything and then refuse to see the light after a reasonable explanation ughhh hate, technology that doesn’t work right omg why do we have to keep turning things off and on that drives me out of my mind!!!

2. What is your favorite food that you can not do with out? 

-Why are these words bro ken like this? I am not one of those silly people who are so dependent on a particular food that I’d die without it. That’s ridiculous. 🙄 Of course, I do require my Constant Comment black tea flavored with orange spice several times a day but that is entirely different.

3. What is your biggest fear?

-Parasites, heights, tsunamis, something bad happening to my family, ID theft, stock market crash, kitty escaping, being sued for some dumbfuckery, car accident, losing my phone gahhh!

4. What has been your biggest accomplishment this year? 

-Not committing homicide.

5. If you could live any where in the world, where would that be? 

-Adorable secluded house full of cats halfway between my two daughters (Santa Barbara or a little north of there idk).

6. What is your favorite method to relieve stress? 

-Throwing things away, cleaning, making lists, etc.

7. Would you rather live on the Moon or on Mars for two years?

-No.

8. What is your favorite type of weather?

-Mild, 70s, not windy.

9. What is your favorite sport to play or watch?

-Not a sports person at all, but ice skating is pretty to watch. I’ll play pool if it’s free.

10. Do you enjoy creative efforts to attract readers to your blog?

-I write what I want. People can read it or not. The only thing I’ve changed over the years is to cut back a bit on the swearing.

10 “this or that” questions:

1. Beach or Mountains?

-Beach when it’s not crowded.

2. Fish or fried chicken wings?

-Fish, cooked.

3. Sydney or Rio De Janeiro?

-No.

4. Swimming or climbing hills?

-Meh.

5. Steak or Lamb?

-Okay.

6. Summer or Winter?

-Summer.

7. Countryside or city?

-Burbs.

8. Spring or Autumn?

-Autumn.

9. Political Science or Statistics?

-Poetry and math.

10. A Train or Airplane Ride?

-Train.

I’m supposed to tag peeps now, but idk who hasn’t been tagged already. I’ll throw some out there and see what happens…

King Ben’s Grandma

Janie Leeds

Vivian Zems

~*~

Images from Google and Bitmoji

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

PFF28: Meow

Welcome to Paula’s Friday Flashback! This is a challenge begun by Fandango and it’s fun to see what we posted back when (as well as the comments). The below is a reblog of a post I made on December 12, 2018. Enjoy!

One-Liner Wednesday: Cats

Cats are perfection. If there is a Supreme Designer, she really outdid herself with felines, small ones especially. Such efficient little killing and grooming and reproducing machines. All while remaining preternaturally adorable, of course. Well, to me. I’m sure your average sparrow has a different opinion.

Cats have hit the news a bit lately. There’s been some buzz about their tongues and how the “bristles” are optimally formed for wicking up saliva to cool kitty during grooming. Also, the bristles get down to the skin and grab dirt and other nasties away from kitty proper. Fascinating stuff.

I guess there are big huge fish and eensy weensy ones too, but for whatever reason I find it so much more interesting that tigers exist and also little baby kittays.

Prompt via Linda

Quote from Goodreads

/end reblog

~*~

Image credit to Pexels.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Cocoa in Black and White

I’m thankful for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week, since it gives me the opportunity to post this pic of my kitty Cocoa (RIP).

Cocoa showed up in my life in the fall of 2004, just when I needed her. My neighbor had been feeding her, a stray, but she had 3 other cats, and Cocoa was all… the heck with this scene, I’m going to check out the accommodations across the street. Cocoa simply strolled into our garage and then on into the kitchen… deciding hey, nice place ya got here, would be a shame if it didn’t have a cat living in it. Now it does. Boom.

Cocoa was a large and lovely lady kitty, lots to love, and we all loved her a lot. She had a super sweet and interesting personality, and soon we adopted a lil sister for her cuz I liked having two of everything back then. Cocoa was probably 6-8 years old when she arrived in our lives and unfortunately already had a limp from arthritis.

By 2011, the arthritis had progressed to the point that Cocoa could no longer walk without pain. We tried some medications but to no effect. After she stopped going to her food dish, she lost a bunch of weight, and we said goodbye. 😢

I like to believe Cocoa was happy with us for those 7 years. We were lucky to have her. 💖💖💖

~*~

Image mine

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Street of Dreams

He’d come in the summer seeking stardom and excitement.

He found a job in a diner on the night shift.

It was a cold Christmas and he locked up for the last time, a train ticket home in his pocket.

~*~

Written for Three Line Tales

Image from Unsplash

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Thursday Inspiration 34

Welcome to Thursday Inspiration! This is my weekly prompt post and hopefully it will inspire you to write something creative, perhaps a poem or a piece of flash fiction. If you’d like to share your writing with the community, please indulge me and tag your post with #p0eticlicense and/or #lightm0tifs, and of course link back if you wish. I will try to visit everyone who participates. 🙂

This week’s theme is city and the picture is below. Here is the song snippet from “In the City” recorded by Joe Walsh in 1979:

I was born here in the city
With my back against the wall
Nothing grows, and life ain’t very pretty
No one’s there to catch you when you fall

~*~

Image credit to the Happy Color app.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

321 Quote Me ~ The Wordsmith

Hey you know the drill by now. This is Rory’s fun game and anyone can play, no tag required. Jump on in! 😻

3 Topical Quotes

2 Music Vids

1 Picture Representing the Topic

This was taken at the awesome Powell’s in Portland, Oregon. What an incredible bookstore! Lots of wordsmiths have their works on these shelves.

~*~

Rory’s 321 Directory

Rory’s Current Post

Images found on Google and in my library

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

FPQ52: The Good Life

Fandango provocatively asks…

What does living “the good life” mean to you? Do you think that you’re living “the good life”?

I’m going to guess that most people will answer in the affirmative to this question. They’ll say they’re living the good life, since anything else seems like admitting failure. We’re always supposed to upsell ourselves. My life is great! My marriage is fantastic! My new job is a blast! Six months later… divorce and bankruptcy court.

But I’m not most people. Not gonna upsell. (My phone doesn’t even believe that’s a word anyway.) I’m not living a “bad” life ~ obviously these definitions are subjective according to our own definition. In my case, I would say I am living an “okay” life.

To me, a good life would have included a happy long-term marriage. It’s not a whole lot of fun doing everything on my own as a single person… case in point, moving. Ugh! I had some help from friends, for which I am extremely grateful, but that’s not the same as a husband with whom you make mutually beneficial decisions. And it’s sure not making me happy to contemplate my lonely retirement on limited funds. Blah.

But as I said, it could be worse. Much worse. I could have ended up with one of the dating site psychos, gahhh. I could have made even stupider decisions than I did in all sorts of areas. No really! I could have.

There are lots of positives happening: good job, good friends, reasonable-ish health, adorable kitty, wonderful daughters, great sons-in-law, sweetest grand daughter, nice new place to live, etc.💖

But I’m plagued with chronic pain (yes, despite being in decent health otherwise). It keeps me from exercising and enjoying some of the good things around me. That gets me down a lot, and I don’t have one of those naturally bubbly type of personalities that goes wheeeeee it’s fine that my neck is all stabby… I’ll still go for a 5 mile joggeroo and smell the flowers cuz life is beautiful! Eff that. 😛

If I’d known I was going to be single at the end of the game, I would have focused more intently on education and career in my 20s. I had every opportunity, but wasn’t thinking about the big picture at that point. I could have done so much more… and made so much more money. You say money isn’t important? Try looking for a place to live in Southern California!😳

On the other hand, it’s gorgeous here. And there’s a lot to do, plus it’s still free to watch the sunsets over the ocean (not to park at the beach however). I’m glad I didn’t stay in Chicago, despite the pizza.🍕

There you have it. Again, not everything has to be extreme, good/bad, love/hate. My life is okay. Not great. Not terrible.

~*~

Image credits to Fandango and me and idk about the orange scissors one so whatever.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

My Visitor [flash 300]

The first time he visited I immediately recognized him. I was here because of him, and yet I had done him worse. The area surrounding me was vacant, so I figured he’d strayed too far on his dog walk. But the next morning he appeared again, strolling around as if this were a park instead of barren land at the end of an ancient railroad line.

When he came the third time, I knew it was not a coincidence. He walked past the leafless trees to where the crumbled stones rested.

“Hello, friend,” he said.

I of course said nothing. I waited.

His dog seemed disinclined to explore and stood by the man as he spoke again. “I’m sorry I did not come before. I wasn’t sure where you were. But I know you’re here. I can feel it. A kind of… electricity.”

He pulled a penlight from his pocket and directed it at the stones, but none had names. He switched off the light. The dog made an anxious whimper.

“It doesn’t matter. I know you’re here,” he repeated. “And I wanted to tell you, if it makes any difference now, that I forgive you. That’s my purpose in tracking you down.”

I didn’t do anything, not that there was much I could do.

He made a noise, possibly a laugh or a sob. “Anyway, I just wanted to say that, odd as it may sound with me still alive and you… well, whatever. If you need that to be free or something, you have it.”

Maybe I did need it. I felt even lighter as he walked away, the dog trotting briskly ahead. My last ties to this place felt as if they were dissolving in a pool of mist and I could float up to the stars…

~*~

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge 44

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Sillygism

Now Melanie has questions! I just got done with wozzername’s. Welp, if I never finish the Mediocre American Novel, we can look right at these two for blamey shamies.

What is truth?

-Okay, so if a poet says truth is beauty, and a mathematician says beauty is simplicity, then can we conclude truth is simple? I think we can. Truth is easy; lies are hard. Lying is stressful to normal humans, which is the principle behind polygraphs. Some say they’re junk science, but most non-sociopaths will experience stress from distorting the truth. Lying takes the order and simplicity of life and perverts it into something ugly and nasty. Those who don’t experience stress from lying, who can do it smoothly and naturally… well, who wants to be around people like that? 🤮

What’s one thing people would never know about you just by looking at you?

-I’m a liar.

Do loud noises bother you?

-Yes and also not so loud ones.

If you were guaranteed the correct answer to just one question, what would you ask?

-WHY ME LORD?

What fills YOUR heart with joy?

~*~

Images by Paula Light.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.